Momentum
“I’ve had people try to tell me to slow down, but I don’t want to lose my momentum.”
My friend, Kimia summed up a major fear for most high performers. I remember worrying about this same thing. I seemed to be hounded by the phrase “if you’re not growing, you’re dying” and I took this to mean, “if you’re not moving, you’re dying.”
I had a similar conversation with my speaker coach, and we discussed how one of the things high performers want to always avoid is going backwards or wasting time.
And yet, with the way the world works, it always feels like we should have finished the steps to our plans and goals weeks or years ago. Instead of seeing the phrase “opportunity knocks” as a hopeful mantra, we see it as panic inducing phrase that we may have missed out on our chance to become more. We’ve been surrounded by messages that remind us that if we don’t get started or don’t get moving, we’ll be left with the regrets of all the things we dreamed about and never got around to doing.
This is exhausting… and not sustainable.
So, what is momentum? And can we preserve it in a sustainable way?
Let’s start with what I know is not.
Momentum is not just movement. We can be busy without actually going anywhere. (I always picture this like treading water – I’m moving frantically, but not going anywhere), but because movement is easy to measure, we often mix it up with moving forward… but that’s not true.
Momentum is referring to our drive to get things done. This is a culmination of our motivations, our beliefs, and our values. If we’re not careful though, we can let our drive overpower our basic needs – i.e. the things we need to do to care for our mind, body, and heart. If we prioritize our drive over everything else, eventually, our body will get our attention by forcing us to stop. That’s what happened to me with burnout. It wasn’t until I was physically incapable of doing the things I wanted to do that I finally paid attention to what my body was needing.
So, to have sustainable momentum, we need to balance both our drives and our needs.
For me, this has meant that I need to be ok with a different pace. In the past, I thought that moving a little slower would mean that I’m not accomplishing as much – but that hasn’t been true. I’ve learned, that as I intentionally build in healthy behaviors while I still drive towards ambitious things, I’m not only getting the things done I wanted to get done, but I feel good when I get to the end of my goals.
And you know what? My momentum has felt stronger than ever.
Thanks for reading with me today. I hope you find ways to balance your drive and your needs this week so that you can sustainably meet your biggest dreams.